Dutch chess tournament shows steel

Stellar line-up for the 2013 meeting at Wijk aan Zee

The traditional tournament at Wijk aan Zee begins today. Formerly known as the Hoogovens, then the Corus Chess Tournament, this world-class event is now supported by the Indian steel company Tata, which has acquired the huge steelworks that dominate the skyline of the windswept Dutch seaside town.

Group A includes five of the world’s top 10 and is FIDE Category 20. Levon Aronian was the winner last year.

Magnus Carlsen

Norway

2861

1

Levon Aronian

Armenia

2802

3

Fabiano Caruana

Italy

2781

5

Sergey Karjakin

Russia

2780

6

Viswanathan Anand

India

2772

7

Hikaru Nakamura

USA

2769

9

Wang Hao

China

2752

14

Peter Leko

Hungary

2735

19

Anish Giri

Holland

2720

29

Pentala Harikrishna

India

2698

49

Loek van Wely

Holland

2679

68

Ivan Sokolov

Holland

2663

82

Erwin L’Ami

Holland

2627

145

Hou Yifan

China

2603

215

Average rating

2731.5

I salute one of my contemporaries, Francis Rayner, Welsh international and six times champion of Hastings Chess Club, who scored an IM result at the Hastings Masters. I recall Francis never fulfilled his potential at chess, as he was an even more talented concert pianist who won national competitions and later studied at the Royal Northern College of Music. Francis became a professional musician and teacher, but since he settled in Hastings he has combined both his talents.